Generally, computers store bytes of data into memories or manipulate the data so that the data may be transmitted. A “byte” is a unit of storage that can hold a single character and is equal to 8 bits, and a “word” equals 2 bytes, that is, 16 bits. Double words equal 32 bits. A 32-bit computer system stores 32 bits in one address, such as an address “N”, and simultaneously loads the 32 bits in a 32-bit data bus. There are two ways to load the 32 bits in the 32-bit data bus: a little endian format and a big endian format.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a little endian format and a big endian format. As shown in FIG. 1, the little endian format 12 sequentially stores byte #0, byte#1, byte #2, and byte #3 from the least significant bit (LSB) to the most significant bit (MSB). The big endian format 14 sequentially stores byte #0, byte #1, byte #2, and byte #3 from MSB to LSB. Data arranged in the little endian format 12 or the big endian format 14 is loaded into a data bus line as follows: the least significant bits are loaded into a data line A[D7:D0]; more significant bits are loaded into a data line B[D15:D8]; even more significant bits are loaded into a data line C[D23:D16]; and the most significant bits are loaded into a data line D[D31:D24].
A computer system may be connected with various peripheral devices by a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) connector. An audio adaptor card, a graphic adaptor card, a local area network (LAN) interface card, a small computer system interface (SCSI) card, and a PCI-industry standard architecture (PCI-ISA) expansion card are inserted into the PCI connector. The audio adaptor card controls audio output from a speaker, and the graphic adaptor card controls visual output from a display monitor. The LAN interface card connects the computer system with a LAN. The SCSI card can control a CD-ROM driver, a scanner or a high speed SCSI disk drive. The PCI-ISA expansion card can connect a keyboard with an ISA bus, a microphone, and a mouse with a bus. PCI peripheral devices are connected with a controller through a bus, thereby allowing for data communication.
During booting of a computer system, a computer system with a mono endian system chooses to use either the little endian format or the big endian format for data transmission. Thereafter, the computer system performs all tasks using the chosen format for data transmission.
However, a problem exists in that peripheral devices, which are connected to the computer system at the request of a user, may not use the same endian format as the computer system. In addition, known peripheral devices do not identify endian information of a computer system to which they are connected and, therefore, do not allow for altering of the configuration of data from a peripheral device to be compatible with that of the computer system.
For example, if a peripheral device used with a personal computer is set to transmit data in the little endian format and the computer system performs data communication using the big endian format, there will be data confusion between the peripheral device and the computer system. Therefore, the computer system will malfunction.